Environmental (In)Justice in North Carolina

Friday, February 7, 2014

(2/7/14) The recent spill of coal ash from a retired Duke Energy plant on the border of North Carolina and Virginia serves as a reminder of the long term - if not permanent - harm to human and environmental health of of dirty energy. At every stage of its production/extraction, processing, transportation, distribution and disposal, coal (among other dirty, resource intensive forms) creates harm.

To be clear - this is not an indictment on workers who are trying to meet their needs and those of their families through opportunities that the local economy offers. Rather this is an indictment of an entire industry that relies on the permanent destruction and destabilization of the environment and the people/communities who live within and rely upon that environment.